biking

[Bob]

i started biking and it kind of rules

i was scared of it for a long time because boston streets/drivers are awful, just awful, but i've dipped my toes into the water with hubway (those public short term commuter rental bikes all over the city) and i'm gonna get a bike of my own soon

it's nice because i live 7 miles away from work, which is a good distance for biking and now i can get decent exercise just from commuting

haven't had any "oh shit i'm going to die" moments yet and i've been at it long enough to get some confidence

basically the trick is to know that 99% of cars are going to do their best to avoid killing you (if only to avoid the paperwork) and to just keep your eyes open for the other 1% and ready to dodge

[TurdBerglar]

I can't even imagine biking through boston. it's treacherous just on foot.

Eventually you develop this sixth sense of the cars around you. kinda just know what they're about to do before they actually do it. be very weary of young women drivers. not cautious at all. young men drivers are reckless but they at least notice you.

[ericg]

i got turned on to biking even more when RAD came out.. always wanted a Haro cuz the guy with the blue and white magged wheels was so awsome in the beginning of the movie. (they were all awesome!)
the last bike i had was a great mountain bike i rode everywhere in arcata, california when i was going to college there. i miss that bike.
anyway...

[Dorothy Wood]

Originally Posted by Dorothy Wood

ha, I forgot.

but what about this bike http://www.masibikes.com/bikes/fixed...uno-riser-2015

I might get that guy

Originally Posted by TurdBerglar

Honestly that bike is a little style over substance. specifically made to appeal to too cool for school hipsters with money to burn. so it's grossly overpriced. especially considering its lack of drivetrain components since it's a single speed. you can get a much better/more comfortable/faster/durable bike in that price range it just won't be as classic and pretty or cool.

it gets it's classic look from using out dated engineering.

It's definitely not a bad bike but you can do better for the price.

Alright, I got that one after all, a year later. 25% off. I like it! Just got it today. It just felt natural when I test rode it. Zipped around today and it performed well. I feel like I can almost jump stuff or pop wheelies. Handlebars are little wide, but kinda felt like bmx, in a good way. But I'll probably switch them out.

[TurdBerglar]

neat

If the bars are too wide you can just easily get them cut with a simple pipe cutter. A lot of bars have markings on the ends so you can easily cut them to a specific length. If you wanna get drop bars you'd have to get different brake levers.


I just got this:

http://vitusbikes.com/products/sentier-vrx-2017/

It's a fucking monster of a bike. The neatest thing about it is the seat post works like an office chair(called a dropper post). I can drop the seat down at a push of a button and get my ass down low for going over technical shit. Then I can push the button again and the seat shoots back up for better pedaling.

The only fucking problem has been the fucking weather. I bought it in February that week it was 70 degrees thinking it was going to be an early spring. Then we got that blizzard a couple a weeks ago in the middle of march. then that snow all melted. Then it fucking snowed again last night. Fucking bullshit.

[Dorothy Wood]

Originally Posted by TurdBerglar

neat

If the bars are too wide you can just easily get them cut with a simple pipe cutter. A lot of bars have markings on the ends so you can easily cut them to a specific length. If you wanna get drop bars you'd have to get different brake levers.


I just got this:

http://vitusbikes.com/products/sentier-vrx-2017/

It's a fucking monster of a bike. The neatest thing about it is the seat post works like an office chair(called a dropper post). I can drop the seat down at a push of a button and get my ass down low for going over technical shit. Then I can push the button again and the seat shoots back up for better pedaling.

The only fucking problem has been the fucking weather. I bought it in February that week it was 70 degrees thinking it was going to be an early spring. Then we got that blizzard a couple a weeks ago in the middle of march. then that snow all melted. Then it fucking snowed again last night. Fucking bullshit.

I wrote a whole response to this, then my computer froze. Something up with the site? Is it hacked?!

I'd be afraid of that fancy seat lowering abruptly, it must have a really heavy duty mechanism.

Also yes, fuck the weather. It's always wet and rainy these days. The streets here are also so sandy and torn up, total mess.

[Dorothy Wood]

My bike is great so far, I am keeping the wide stance handlebars for now because they're kinda fun. Plus, it turns out my supervisor is into bikes, and he saw me leave with it and was like, "that's YOUR bike?" and I was like Then the other day a higher up guy was like, "hey, nice bike!" when I came in to work. So, it's good for my career! hahaha

I came here to post this though, what the fuck is this shit? Why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk-PfmvCLuE

[Bob]

Originally Posted by TurdBerglar

I can't even imagine biking through boston. it's treacherous just on foot.

Eventually you develop this sixth sense of the cars around you. kinda just know what they're about to do before they actually do it. be very weary of young women drivers. not cautious at all. young men drivers are reckless but they at least notice you.

Yeah the idea of it freaked me out for the longest time and I never would've imagined myself doing it, but something changed one day and now I'm giving it a try. mostly i'm just tired of the T

I'm still really careful about which roads I go down, some are better than others. And I'm still a coward that hops off the bike and crosses on foot at some of the hairer intersections. But if you plan it out in advance enough, you can pick a route with long straightaways on roads with bike lanes (such as they are) and you can get where you're going about as fast as you would if you took the T.

It also helps that there are lots of other bikes out there on the road, so usually you can just follow someone who looks like they know what they're doing and now cars are half as likely to not see you

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Bob

It also helps that there are lots of other bikes out there on the road, so usually you can just follow someone who looks like they know what they're doing and now cars are half as likely to not see you

This is what makes London a joy to ride in. The infrastructure is slowly getting better but it was always safer than the shitty backwards city I live in now even though it has less traffic because there is safety in numbers. There are always enough people around that regular drivers in London expect someone to be there. Tourists are a problem but it's hard to educate them because they are either looking up at buildings or looking down at phones - never what's in front of them.